YA Scavenger Hunt: Red Team Go!

Today kicks off a Fall YA Scavenger Hunt, and there are tons of great prizes to be won. You decide how much effort to put into it, but the rewards will definitely be commensurate with the time you spend visiting various sites and gathering clues.

There are six teams: RED, GOLD, GREEN, ORANGE, INDIE and BLUE.

I’m on the RED team, myself. If at any point, you get stuck, check out the How to Hunt page for help.

At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team!But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

There are six contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! Either way, it’s up to you. Pretty exciting stuff, right?

If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the red team, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by October 5, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

I have the pleasure of hosting the talented Page Morgan, author of the THE LOVELY & THE LOST. Let’s get to know her better before I show you the good stuff, okay?

About Ms. Morgan, in her own words: “I’m the author of the YA Gothic thriller THE BEAUTIFUL & THE CURSED, along with its sequel THE LOVELY & THE LOST. I’ve been intrigued by les grotesques ever since I came across an old, black-and-white photograph of a Notre Dame gargoyle keeping watch over the city of Paris. I wanted to tell that gargoyle’s story. Soon, the idea for The Beautiful & the Cursed was born. I live in New England with my husband and our three daughters, an English Pointer puppy, an arrogant cat, two cuddly bearded dragons, a bunch of chickens, and during the summer and fall, our neighbor’s two sweet horses.”

About THE LOVELY & THE LOST:Ingrid and Gabby Waverly moved to France expecting a quiet reprieve from London gossip, but the truth they face in their new home has a sharper–and deadlier–sting.

Paris is plagued by an underworld of demons and gargoyles who all seem to want something from the Waverly girls. Saving Ingrid’s twin, Grayson, from the fallen angel Axia nearly killed them. And they’re still being hunted–only this time, demons aren’t their only predators.

Ingrid’s blood is special: it bestows the power to command gargoyles. It’s an ability no other human has, and in the wrong hands, it could be used to send her cursed guardian, Luc, and his fellow Dispossessed to extinction. There are those who will do anything to get Ingrid’s blood–and they see no value in human life.

The Alliance has vowed to protect the Waverlys, and a new gargoyle has been assigned to guard their abbey home alongside Luc. But no one can watch over Ingrid, Gabby, and Grayson all the time–which means the three must learn to fight for themselves.

Because darkness follows the Waverlys. And sometimes darkness comes in the form you trust the most.

Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?

BONUS CONTENT!

Now, let’s get to Ms. Morgan’s bonus content. You lucky readers get to check out this exclusive excerpt from THE WONDROUS AND THE WICKED, coming April 2015:

Ingrid waited until Marco had disappeared before turning around, slowly. She realized that she was afraid. It was ridiculous. She had nothing to fear from Luc, yet her pulse leaped and her breath caught in her throat when she saw him. He’d raked back his obsidian hair, and while Ingrid stood speechless he allowed his eyes to rove over her. They coasted hungrily from her messy chignon to her lips to her neck and bodice and then up again.

“You should have told me where you were,” she whispered.

Luc abruptly moved away, toward the open ballroom doors. “And now you know why I tried to keep you away.”

She knew Luc wouldn’t believe the lie, but it felt good to say it anyway. Of course she was afraid of him. He was an angry, powerful gargoyle and he’d just made a public vow to kill her.

Luc stopped in the center of the ballroom, underneath the giant chandelier hanging crookedly from the ceiling. He stood motionless on the cracked and stained tiles, the dance floor covered in filth, debris, and mouse droppings. The rotted piano had lost one of its legs and crashed into a tilt, yellowed sheet music scattered over the floor around it like leaves.

“He wants you dead,” Luc said, his back to her. He wore the same clothes he’d always worn, the loose alabaster linen shirt and tan canvas trousers. He looked the same and sounded the same, and yet there was something different about him. Ingrid didn’t know what it was.

He turned to face her, the fading sun setting the ballroom in a hazy gilded light.

“And he wants me out of the way so he can be elder, unchallenged. What better way to do that than to prove to all of the Dispossessed that I’ve taken a human?”

Ingrid’s stomach bottomed out as she realized what she’d done.

“Oh,” she whispered, pulling back a step. “Oh, no. Luc—”

She’d entered gargoyle common grounds and defended Luc, attacking his opposition with her demon gift. And just moments after Vincent had accused Luc of falling in love with a human. With her.

“I gave him what he wanted.” She buried her face into her palms. “I’m so sorry, Luc. I wasn’t thinking. I heard him firing up the other gargoyles and I knew they’d try to attack you and rip you apart like what happened to René and I—”

Tears stung at her eyes, and she was glad she’d covered her face. She hated when her lips and chin quivered in the effort to fight off a sob.

“Ingrid.” Luc had come to stand directly in front of her. He pulled her hands from her face, but she turned her head, not wanting to see how disappointed he was right then.

He brought their entwined hands down between them, level with his hips, and tugged her forward. With his lips at her ear, Luc whispered, “It’s not that I wasn’t impressed.”

She felt the brush of his lips against her earlobe and Ingrid forgot her embarrassment. She forgot the rundown ballroom and her dwindling time before Marco came to fetch her.

“But don’t risk yourself for me again,” Luc said, his breath hot against her ear. She angled her head toward him, wanting nothing more than his warmth.

“You risked yourself for me,” she said. “By finding me in the park. Coming for me when Vincent could have been watching your every move.”

He sighed, nuzzling her temple before letting one of her hands go. He stepped back.

“Have you healed?” he asked, rubbing his thumb along the center of her palm. “I wish I could know without asking.”

That was what was different about him. He couldn’t sense her. She didn’t understand how, but she felt the loss of that connection too.

“I’m fine now,” she assured him.

He kept hold of her hand as he started walking, avoiding a pile of old sheets clumped together in the middle of the dance floor.

Luc kept on toward the grand, Rococo-styled double doors that led into the building’s main corridor. She didn’t know where he thought they could go with the few minutes they had left together. Ingrid wanted to follow Luc through the house anyway, perhaps up the stairs to Lennier’s rooms. She wanted to stay with Luc in this decrepit, timeless place while the rest of Paris dealt with Axia’s imminent return.

***

KEEP PLAYING

Don’t stop playing! To continue hunting for clues and reading more exciting, exclusive content, click on to JENNY LUNDQUIST’s blog. I know she has some delicious goodies waiting.

Finally, this post has been sponsored by the number 88 . (Psst. This is an important clue. Remember it!)